So the choice has been made, I see~! Well then, without further ado…let's go into it, shall we?
/= [DAY 10] =/
Charice stretched her legs out as she found some good running shoes from her closet. Since she's up early for once, she felt that she was more than likely to bump into Ludwig again in his morning training whatever-that-might-be. Heck, she was up for a jog. This time, she was coming prepared.
She looked at the time. 4:28 AM. She had time to stretch.
She jogged herself down the stairs (jumping on each step for some reason) before landing on the ground and jogging out the door. Sure enough, she found herself at the school. Odd enough, she didn't see any of them passing by. Charice shrugged, plugged in her iPod, and then decided to jog around the school on her own.
Hey, I used to climb around rocky landscapes to get through a city! She thought. I can handle this.
Charice chuckled as she flipped through her iPod. Seeing as how it was charged, she had no problem choosing a song and taking on a pace through the area. Before she knew it, she turned a corner and saw Kiku just straightening himself out from his jog.
Ah~! Nihon-kun! She chirped. All right then! Maybe I can catch up with him if I-
The music suddenly stopped on her iPod, confusing her. She pressed the Play button again and was surprised to see that nothing happened. Confused, she pulled out her iPod and saw that the screen indicated that everything was perfectly normal. However, the headphones didn't seem to be loose and the volume seemed to be working quite nicely. Suddenly, as she looked back up to Kiku, music began to play.
"GAAAH!" She lowered the volume. God, that was loud…
She paused. This wasn't the song that she was listening to earlier, and come to think of it they didn't even share the same artist. Confused, she lifted up her iPod to see the song just as the image of Kiku ran back around the next curve…and stared at the title.
"Strangers Like Me"…by Phil Collins?
/= ["Strangers Like Me" by Phil Collins] =/
When she was done with her jog, she finally sank back in her seat of the class. Sure, she had a good half hour until the class actually started…but that's beside her. At least her iPod has stopped glitching like mad and continued to play the song that she was originally listening too. Thank god, since she loved this part…
"It is strange to see someone like you in class this early."
She screamed in shock. No, it wasn't because it was Kiku suddenly appearing next to her (which was freaky enough). It was the fact that the minute he started speaking, the damn iPod stopped midsong and immediately went back to the Phil Collins song. Let me tell you that the volume was higher than before.
"I-I'm sorry…did I startle you?"
"No, no…not you. It's my damn iPod." She sighed. "It's been glitching on me the entire morning."
"Really? How so?"
"Well, it would play a song and then suddenly start playing this one song in particular." Every time you're around. But let's not tell him that.
Kiku looked confused before gesturing toward the iPod. Of course she quickly handed it over, trying to pause the music (and failing horribly). After a few minutes of Kiku listening to it and scrolling on it, he gave it back to her with a confused look on his face.
"Well, I don't understand what the problem is. The iPod is working just fine."
Say what now? "R-really?"
Kiku nodded as he took back the iPod and scrolled to a certain song. He lifted up half the headphones for her to listen to. Unfortunately, she still heard the Phil Collins song even when he looked like to have pressed the Play button. He even looked like he was scrolling down a playlist.
"I love this song…I'm surprised that you have it."
"…yeah…yeah, I know…" Still hearing Phil Collins, Kiku.
After a while, she just gave up. Obviously her iPod is driving her insane. Maybe it's possessed…in that case, god damn the freaky other world for driving her electronics to insanity. Not only that, but god damn the fact that it freaks out only when Kiku's around.
Maybe Apple's breaking down and crying to Japanese technology?
The world will never know…
/=+=/
Once lunchtime rolled around, she looked up and realized that Kiku was gone. She sighed and sat up, pulling out her iPod and surprised to see that it was working perfectly fine. Charice shrugged and placed on another song while plugging it in her ears. God bless the bud headphones…
"Charice."
She jumped and saw Li Xiao standing next to her desk, staring at her with a blank look on his face. Confused, she stood up and fixed her uniform (it was then that she realized that the uniforms from the Europe class and the Asia class were different…why was that?).
"What's up?" She asked.
"I was wondering if you would like to join me for lunch today."
(O_O)"
"Sure…?" Since when did he have an interest in her that surpassed the other world? "Why…may I ask?"
"I have a feeling that the murderer is going to strike again today. I want the both of us together in case we have to do something immediate."
Oh, OK. The world makes sense again (-_-)'
"Unless you're opting out…in which case I won't blame you."
"I'm not opting out, you know!" She stood up. "Because I'm Asian and I have the will of God on my shoulders! All evil doers will be judged by God's hand~!"
"Love your enthusiasm…"
Charice just shrugged as he walked down the stairs and grabbed a box on his desk. As she passed by, she realized that there was one more box on the table. Confused, she picked it up and turned toward a leaving Li Xiao, which of course left her even more confused.
"Hey, you forgot something-!"
"That's your lunch." He answered. "By the looks of things, you forgot yours."
Son of a…oh right…no food.
She gave up trying to argue and continued to walk after the Chinese man. When he opened the door, he was surprised to see Matthew standing there. He gave a nervous laugh as he rubbed the back of his head and fidgeted with holding a small pack in his hand. A lunch bag, perhaps…?
"Oh…t-there you two were…here I thought you had already left…"
"You obviously didn't think that." Li Xiao sighed. "Or else you wouldn't check here first."
"He was obviously passing by." Charice defended. "Duh."
"Yeah. I was heading toward the lobby…"
"Wait, you can access the lobby that way?" Her eyes sparkled. "Whoa, I never knew…!"
Li Xiao just sighed as Matthew led the way of their small walk, explaining to Charice every detail of the walk so that she will do this in the future.
"Ohhh, interesting! Here I thought this just led to the Europe hall!"
"The Europe hall leads basically everywhere in the school. I guess it's because they have the most students?"
"I know! What is that about?" Charice sighed as she scrolled through a new song. "Is it because the European continent refused to get along so they just decided to just split themselves up whenever they felt like it?"
"Um…I don't know if it works like that, but…I guess?"
"Geez, no wonder most of the problems started over there…"
"What, you hold a grudge against them or something?"
"Of course not, Li Xiao! I'm stating how semi-lucky we are with having semi-simple history…compared to them, I mean." She grinned. "Think about it: we have two Asians and one Canadian aka What-America-Would-Be-Like-If-France-Took-Over!"
"…that is so true…"
"A-are you saying that like a bad thing?"
"Nah, I'm saying it for comedy relief~!"
Oddly enough, it's true…
/=+=/
"Ah~! There she is!"
As they looked up from their small picnic, they saw Ludwig and Feliciano walking toward them with a pen and paper. From the corner of her eye, she saw Matthew stare at them with a look of confusion on his face.
"Um…what are they doing?"
"What, you didn't know? They're part of the Newspaper Club!" Charice laughed, standing up and taking out one of her headphones. "You needed me?"
"Ve~~we're interviewing countries about September holidays!" Feliciano chirped.
"Yes…we've gotten most of the European countries and just started doing the other ones." Ludwig sighed. He obviously didn't want to do this topic…if this at all. "So we wanted to start with you."
"All right…so you just want holidays that are celebrated in September back in my place?"
"If you have any." He answered.
"Hm…" She slapped her hands together. "Oh, right! Christmas!"
She looked up from her realization / remembrance and couldn't help but notice that the others were staring at her with the most shocked look on their faces (even Big Guy Li Xiao Chun himself…and that's surprising). She tilted her head in confusion.
"…what?"
"Um…Charice…" Ludwig walked up to her (automatically freaking her out). "Holidays in September."
"Yeah, Christmas! We of the Philippines are well known for starting our festivities in September!" She chirped. "I mean, they're not really festivities…it's just the time where the children start caroling and we all set up for all the festivities in December, but really it's all the same~!"
Feliciano and Ludwig looked at each other. They obviously weren't expecting that.
"Oh…god, now I remember what I have to do later! I have to hang up the parol me and Rizal made a few years ago…ah, this year's Christmas is going to be awesome~!" She chirped. "Do you want details?"
"No, I…" Ludwig was obviously confused. "I'm already confused on September Christmas carols…"
"Eh, it's fine. We're the only ones who do that~!" She chirped. Man, this feels so good.
"Hm…last time I checked, Kiku was part of the Newspaper Club as well…" Li Xiao stood up. "Where's-"
"GAH!"
Everyone jumped to see Charice jump from her headphones. She mumbled something to herself before pulling out the iPod and staring at the screen. And guess what song was playing at that exact moment?
…my GOD. Just the very mention of this freakin' name glitches it.
"Um…" Feliciano looked at her. "A-are you all right?"
"Yeah, all's good. Freakin' iPod decided to not care about me anymore." She sighed. "But nothing of your fault."
"Ve~~~"
She sighed as she turned back toward the iPod that was screeching out the Phil Collins song. Suddenly she heard what sounded like static (on the iPod? Did she download a version like that?) before it decided to shut down on her. She began to fume.
"OH COME ON! I just charged this damn thing!" She spat. "Ugh…well, someone's out to get me…"
"Shouldn't you just buy a new one?" Ludwig looked at her. "That's an iPod Mini, right?"
"IT STILL WORKS…until now, I guess…" She sighed. "Oh well. Back to lunch~!"
No one decided to question it, so they decided to eat with her in peace. At least Li Xiao and Feliciano can cook really well. Nonetheless, they had fun.
/=+=/
"I. Hate. My. MP3 Player."
"Don't blame it…maybe it's getting old…"
"Yeah, but it worked so many times before…" She sighed. "What's with that one mention of Japan and…"
"It plays one song every time Japan is mentioned?"
"Mentioned, in the room, talking to me, anything." She stated. "Really weird. Not to mention the fact that while we were talking, the song seemed to have some form of static and just died on me…"
Li Xiao stared at her as if she said the weirdest thing on the planet. Before she knew it, the song started up again. She jumped in shock before realizing that it was getting louder as she was approaching the doors. Charice quickly followed the sound with the two men behind her until she finally found the loudest part.
"This…is getting weird."
"You don't think?" Li Xiao sighed. "What's going on?"
"The iPod…it's loudest here."
"I-Isn't this the kendo room?" Matthew looked up.
We had a kendo room? So joining this.
Charice threw the door open and walked into the room, seeing the light peer into the Japanese style windows…
And screamed.
There was a body in the middle of the room, covered with blood. A deep wound was dug into his stomach as if he was sliced open, and another cut was made to the neck, almost to slice his head off. But the body itself wasn't what made Charice scream. No…it was a lot worse than that.
It was Kiku Honda.
/=+=/
Yes, the Philippines are well known for being one of Asia's two most Catholic countries. And we do celebrate Christmas in September! Unfortunately, Filipinos who move to America don't follow that tradition, so…yeah, I'm sorry. You can't see them. But the truth is that the biggest festivities are in December, like the rest of the world. It usually starts a week early with mass at dawn.
By the way, for all you American readers: the "parol" mentioned is like a hanging ornament, similar to what you hang on a Christmas tree. The only thing is that they're lanterns made with bamboo and rice paper, and are usually shaped like stars. They're very colorful~!
And yeah, plot twist with plot twist! Don't kill me, please. Oh yeah, another note: it's supposed to look like seppuku.